Russia withdraws nuclear flagship

The head of Russia's cash-starved navy caused uproar yesterday when he announced that the fleet's flagship nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great had been temporarily withdrawn from service because of fears that it "could explode at any moment".

Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov told Russian news agencies: "The ship is in such poor condition that it could explode at any moment. The situation is especially dangerous because the ship is powered by a nuclear power plant." It was not clear whether he was suggesting that there could be a nuclear explosion.

He said the the 24,000-tonne, 250-metre vessel was taken off the list of combat-ready ships last Thursday and was confined to its home port near Murmansk, in northern Russia, pending maintenance work.

Such an alarming warning made in public is highly unusual. Peter the Great is the pride of Russia's northern fleet, has a crew of 760 and can carry 20 cruise missiles.

Several analysts dismissed the admiral's comments as "overly dramatic", interpreting them as part of a power struggle among the navy's top brass or as a clumsy bid for more government funding.

Admiral Kuroyedov said: "Everything is all right on the ship in the areas where admirals walk around, but in areas where they don't it is in such a state that it could blow up at any moment.

"I am referring to the maintenance of the nuclear reactor[s] too.

"If all commanding officers had a similar attitude to maintenance the fleet would collapse. I could find more order in a lowly minesweeper commanded by a lieutenant."

His comments caused such embarrassment in the government that he was forced to issue a statement hours later reassuring the public that the ship's nuclear safety was not in doubt.

The Bellona Foundation, an environmental group which monitors Russia's nuclear naval activities, also played down his comments. It said: "The foundation considers that Kuroyedov is dramatising the situation and that there is no (immediate) danger."

But the fact remains that Russia's £500m flagship is out of action, its crew need to repeat basic naval exercises for the next two to three months and Rear-Admiral Vladimir Kasatanov, the ship's commander, has two weeks to correct the shortcomings which have been identified.

"To acknowledge that the flagship of the fleet is incapable of carrying out combat duties is a scandal," said the official Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper yesterday.

The scandal is all the greater because Russia's two other ships in the same class (Kirov), Admiral Ushakov and Nakhimov, have been laid up in port for years because of a lack of funding.

Peter the Great was rated as the northern fleet's best ship last year and was visited by the defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, who spoke about the "high combat readiness of the fleet".

The Daily Kommersant quoted naval sources who suggested that Admiral Kuroyedov's comments may have been motivated by power politics.

Igor Kasatanov, the uncle of the ship's apparently disgraced commander, has testified against Admiral Kuroyedov during an investigation into a submarine sinking last year which claimed nine lives and sources believe this may be a way of getting back at him.

They also suggested that it may be a way of discrediting the northern fleet's former commander, Admiral Gennady Suchkov, who was suspended as part of the same investigation.

The Russian navy has been plagued by disaster in recent times. In 2000, a faulty torpedo sank the Kursk submarine killing 118 crew; in 2003 a K-159 submarine sank killing nine crew and in February the test-firing of a ballistic missile failed.